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| my cute little christmas plum cake |
So Christmas
came and went. We welcomed it on 24th midnight and made it merry in
our own Punjabi way over a get together with family and friends. 25th
day was quite usual, however I did plan to make the evening special by baking a
cake. Afterall, what is Christmas without the sweetness of a home-baked plum cake
right?
Now,
there are quite a few variations of a plum cake, some use rum, wine and brandy
while others are good with orange juice. The authentic recipe required a lot of
work (read: soaking of dry fruits in a concoction of rum and red wine a few
days prior to Christmas) and I just did not get the time to do that. Therefore,
on 25th evening post work a charged me decided to follow the alcohol
free recipe of a Christmas plum cake (the variation with orange juice) and
added a bit of my own twist to it.
I got
a handful of walnuts, dates, raisins and tutti frutti and chopped them roughly.
Then I started working on my batter. My sis-in-law (Tii) joined in the Christmas
spirit and helped me with the cake. While I was sifting the flour with baking
powder and salt, I asked Tii to start mixing the butter and sugar till it
looked fluffy. We added two glorious eggs (one at a time) to the butter and
whisked them well. We squeezed out the juice of an orange and added some to the
butter mix. We roughly tore a few pieces of the orange rind and mixed it with
the chopped dry fruits. Since I did not have the Christmas mixed spice
handy, I made some at home by grinding cloves, cinnamon and mace together. I added this to the butter mix and to add a
twist we grated some ginger in it. The dry fruits were added to the flour. And the
flour mix was added to the butter mix slowly in shifts with some milk. Once the
batter was ready I grated some nutmeg into it and gave it all a final whisk; Tii
greased a bowl for me and I added the batter to it.
The bowl
was shoved into the oven and left to bake for 30-40 minutes at 160 degree Celsius.
After
the allotted time I took the cake out of the oven. I could whiff the aroma of all
the flavours in the kitchen. The sweetness of sugar, the tanginess of orange
and sharpness of spices all blended in together so beautifully. I left the cake
on a rack to cool. Once it came to room temperature I decorated it with some
tutti frutti (that was the only thing I could get hold of).
Post
dinner we decided to enjoy the Christmas plum cake with some coffee.
Verdict
My father-in-law
found it amazingly soft and my mother-in-law too liked it. My husband who was
expecting an authentic plum cake in one hour said “it is an amazing cake we had
on Christmas but it is not a Christmas plum cake. I mean it is very christmasyyy
BUT it is not a Christmas plum cake”. Tii and I chose to differ and enjoyed the
delicious cake.
Ingredients
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| my slice |
1.5
cups of all purpose flour
1.25
cups of brown sugar
6
tbsp of room temperature butter
2
eggs
2
tbsp baking powder
Pinch
of salt
Handful
of walnuts (roughly chopped)
Handful
of raisins
3-4
dates (roughly chopped)
Handful
of tutti frutti
.25
cup of orange juice
Few pieces
of orange rind (roughly chopped)
1
tbsp of grated ginger
Mixed
spice (powdered mix of 2 sticks of cinnamon, 2 cloves and a piece of mace)
Half
grated nutmeg
½ cup
of milk
To get your own sweet Christmas plum cake follow
Preheat the oven at 160 degree Celsius for ten minutes.
Mix butter and sugar together till fluffy. Add an egg and
whisk well. Then add the other egg and whisk it again. Add orange juice, mixed
spice and grated ginger to this and bring it all together.
Sift together flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add
the chopped nuts to it.
Add the flour mix to the butter-egg mix in three shifts.
With every shift add a little milk and stir the mix well.
Grease an oven proof bowl with some butter and coat it
with a thin layer of flour. Add the batter to it and put the bowl in the
preheated oven and bake at 160 degree Celsius for 30-40 minutes.
Once done, check if the cake is done by putting a
toothpick in the middle. If the cake is done the toothpick will come out clean.
Take the cake out on a rack and let it cool. Decorate it
with tutti frutti and other nuts and serve.
P.S.: The “plum cake-coffee” combo is heavenly.
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